In this 30th anniversary year of the John Smith’s Stadium, Sir John Harman—a former member of Kirklees Council and 20-year chairman of Kirklees Stadium Development Ltd.—considers the lessons that can be learned from the past.
The stadium was built in the early 1990s thanks to the combined efforts of Sir John and former Huddersfield Town chairman Graham Leslie CBE.
It looks like there was a celebration to commemorate Huddersfield Town’s relocation from Leeds Road to the new stadium thirty years ago. Unfortunately, I wish I had received an invitation.
I might have had something to say, having served as the chairman for more than 20 years and still having a functioning memory.
Upon further reflection, it’s probably best that I wasn’t. We would have been commemorating the shared goal that enabled the club and Kirklees Council to work together to accomplish something that neither could have accomplished on its own.
And perhaps I would have added that, like the old Leeds Road field, that shared goal has now become history.
Everyone eventually comprehended the necessity of joint ownership, the need for the clubs and the council to pool resources and apply to funders such as the Football Trust, and the reason that stadium management should be kept apart from the clubs’ or council’s daily operations.
The council could safeguard the money paid for by ratepayers while the clubs focused on what they do best—manage professional sports.
for a period of time. However, memories deteriorate. Club owners enjoy having possessions. HTAFC has been claiming ownership of the entire operation—including catering, lettings, ground crew, and a lot of other aspects—for more than ten years now. As if they don’t already have enough on their plate when it comes to playing.
Sir John Harman
The Huddersfield Giants have said in recent times that they once more desire their own stadium. The council wants to distance itself from the situation entirely—with the exception of the freehold, of course.
If we were to yearn for 1994, it was believed to be a great benefit for our teams not to have to include stadium operations in their financial statements.
I’ve been watching all of this with a heavy heart. Having witnessed the stadium’s birth, growth, and maturity, I feel quite protective of it. Thus, you might assume that these are the musings of an irate elderly father, and you might be partially correct.
But there’s a deeper issue at hand, and that is the question of who actually owns a football team. Not: Who owns the stock? But in reality, whose is it?
The answer is obvious: the group of fans who keep track of the team’s results, attend games, and occasionally own season tickets; they anticipate the outcomes every winter Saturday and celebrate when they succeed and mourn when they fail.
However, even if they would never attend a game, the majority of the community acknowledges that HTAFC and the Giants are inextricably linked to who and what we are.
Because of this, no local government that has a professional club within its boundaries can reject it or ignore its success.
Any council’s main goal should be to promote its community and its people, and in our culture, nothing is more essential to a town’s feeling of place than its football team.
The clubs were dealt a winning hand thirty years ago when they acquired a cutting edge stadium that allowed them to concentrate on their athletic performance and compete at the greatest level.
Like many Town supporters, I am appalled by the club’s decline and incensed by the decision-making that has led to such a disjointed and demoralising campaign of play this past season.
On the pitch, the team can start afresh, but it will be much more difficult to recapture the collaborative spirit of 1994.
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